I was given to a Lawyer firm for a credit card debt and they

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I was given to a Lawyer firm for a credit card debt and they filed a complaint to obtain a judgement. I have to Answer to the complaint in the next few days. I tried to reach them and offer them 20% of the balance but they do not want less than 70%. Should I put my settlement offer in the Answer to them and sent them a copy and one to the court? How can I settled with them for less? I am self employed and my husband too and I can not agree to a long term settlement because I do not have a stable income. I settled with other credit cards but I have this one and two more judgments that I want to settle. I just settled a house credit line for 10%, and I do not want to go in bankruptcy for $30K .

LADYLAWYER :Hello, Thanks for choosing Justanswer.com! I look forward to helping you with legal information today. Please give me a moment to review your question and to answer you.

LADYLAWYER :Offers to settle are unfortunately in admissible in court. However, in your answer, you can say that you have attempted a good faith settlement with the plaintiff and that they have rejected your offer. You should not include proof of that offer in the form of a letter attached as an exhibit.

Customer:

So, should I attached or not?

LADYLAWYER :No.

LADYLAWYER :you should only say you made an offer to settle. Saying ow much or attaching proof may mean the plaintiff will file a motion to strike, and even if they don't, the judge cannot take it into account.

Customer:

what will be the next step?Will this stop them to obtain the judgement?

LADYLAWYER :With regard to the settlement, the crediotr is not legally obligated to accept anything less than the full amount of what they are saying you owe. That said, most will accept a 50% settlement. Some accept less and some more, as you have seen.

LADYLAWYER :No, this will not stop them, but it will delay them.

LADYLAWYER :If they will not accept your offer and they move forward, then you will have an opportunity to show the judge what you make and what you can afford to pay.

Customer:

If I hire a lawyer to settle, will that be a possibility to make them accept less

LADYLAWYER :It is likely that they will accept less, but your attorney's fees could be thousands in the meantime. So you have to weigh that with whether you should just put that money towards the settlement.

Sorry :) when you leave a rating, it closes out our live chat. Thank you very much for the rating and for requesting me. I really appreciate it.

I was going to say that if you cannot pay what they are requesting, it may actually be to your benefit to let them get the judgment and then, since you work for yourself, it will be nearly impossible to collect from you. Of course, I know you do not want a judgment against you and that you are trying to avoid that, but it isn't completely a bad thing since you would not have to pay them anything for the time being if you cannot afford it. What's more, you can still make offers to settle on judgments and they may accept less than they are asking for now.

You have to answer each numbered allegation by saying "admit", "deny", or "without enough knowledge to admit or deny". Don't leave anything blank as that will be an admission. Also, you want to include all your affirmative defenses in your answer as well. What court was the lawsuit filed in and what county as well? I can see if there are any Answer templates for you to use.